My Cellphone My Terms

One week to Launch Date on New BlackBerry Cell Phones

With one week to go before the launch of BlackBerry Bold 9900, Torch 9810 and 9860 on most of the major carrier here in Canada, we are all relieved to see that RIM is trying to keep pace with its competitors by introducing a whole new line of its popular phones.

It’s a tall order to fulfill however, as we all know dual core processors and 3D handsets are already on the market and 8 Mps front/rear facing camera are becoming the norm, so one begs the question are these devices already outdated. Also, we are well aware that RIM is working on the release of its QNX platform hopefully early rather than late 2012, (maybe RIM will surprise us here) so is this new suite of phones just a stop gap measure? You will recall the last major release for RIM in the smartphone space was the Torch 9800 back in September 2010 and of course there was the BB Style in November 2010 which never really went anywhere, so they are at risk of being swept away by the Android tide and the iPhone tidal wave unless the BB fraternity remains faithful.

What’s coming?

All three of these phones are touch screen devices powered by a 1.2GHz processor with 768MB of onboard RAM and will be running on the new and improved BB OS 7.0. It also supports RIM’s Liquid Graphics technology, which uses a dedicated graphics processor for smoother scrolling, zooming and panning. What this all means is that you will have a faster and better user experience.

The Bold 9900 set to be the flagship device and is the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone yet, at only 2.6 inch width and a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen with the highest DPI of the trio, HSPA+, NFC (embedded in the battery cover).It also has a large QWERTY keyboard with clunky keys aimed at the heavy typists.The Torch 9860 is first full All-touch phone (no pull out QWERTY keyboard) with an 3.7-inch screen while the Torch 9810 aka Torch 2 has a 3.2-inch touchscreen which slides up to reveal a keyboard.

Side by Side Comparison:

Device Type	BlackBerry Bold 9900	BlackBerry Torch 9810	BlackBerry Torch 9860
Image
Display	640x480Pixels	640x480pixels	800x480pixels
Battery Time	Up to6.3 (GSM), 5.9 (UMTS)hours of talk time	Up to6.5 (GSM), 5.9 (UMTS)hours of talk time	Up to4.7 (GSM), 6.8 (UMTS)hours of talk time
	Up to12.8days of standby	Up to12.8 (GSM), 12.3 (UMTS)days of standby	Up to13.9 (GSM) 13.5 (UMTS)days of standby
	Up to50hours of music playback	Up to54hours of music playback	Up to44hours of music playback
Dimensions	4.53 inheight	Closed: 4.37 in, Open: 5.83 inheight	4.72 inheight
	2.60 inwidth	2.44 inwidth	2.44 inwidth
	0.41 indepth	0.57 indepth	0.45 indepth
Weight	4.59 ouncesweight	5.68 ouncesweight	4.76 ouncesweight
Camera	5.0 MPcamera	5.0 MPcamera	5.0 MPcamera
	4Xdigital zoom	4Xdigital zoom	4Xdigital zoom
	Flash	Flash	Flash
Video	HD video recording	HD video recording	HD video recording
Memory	8 GB eMMConboard memory	8 GB eMMC 768 MBonboard memory	4 GM eMMC 768 MBonboard memory
Keyboard	Full QWERTY keyboard	Slide-out QWERTY keyboard + on-screen keyboard: portrait SureType®, QWERTY and multi-tap, landscape QWERTY	On-screen keyboardPortrait: SureType, QWERTY and Multi-tapLandscape: QWERTY
	Optical trackpad + touch screen	Optical trackpad + touch screen	Optical trackpad + touch screen

Pricing & Dates

The pricing for the Bold 9900, Torch 9810 and 9860 are set at $249.99 for the Bold and $199.99 for both Torch handsets. Most of the major carriers already have the phones as “Coming soon” and set for August 15^th launch. If you are looking to upgrade your existing BlackBerry and want a competitive quote check us out, you won’t be disappointed.